Exceedingly Mundane

tidbits of random nothingness

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Jul
14
Posted by Stace

Rebuilding the Fence

That’s basically the update for this past week: Tim and our neighbor Rick have been rebuilding fences. 🙂

Let’s see, this past week Tim did not play golf once. He played last Sunday, but has not played again. He and Rick worked on our fence and then Rick’s. They have all the 2×4’s up, all the fence boards up now and are working on gates (2 each).

Wednesday at lunch, we drove out to check on the house. Still working inside on cabinets and trim, putting up crown moulding and they had started on the inside brick. Friday afternoon, we got some rain showers around 4 PM, so Tim and Rick decided to take a break. We went back to check on the house, then went out to eat (Chinese buffet!) and to Harbor Freight. At the house, they had finished the inside brick, both the keeping room fireplace and the arch going from the great room into the kitchen/keeping room. They had the outside shutters built, but not installed. I’m hoping for garage doors, driveway and things like that soon. I am hoping they can do some outside stuff while the carpenters are still busy inside. Oh, and Friday evening, they had started on my screened-in back porch! Yippee!

Friday, I ran errands most of the day. I went to Kroger, to Harbor Freight (for a gift card) and the post office and also to Sam’s. Suzanne met me at Sam’s and got a whole cart full of stuff! I hope she has room to store it all 🙂 She also filled up her Toyota with gas.

Saturday was a work day around here. Tim and Rick started around 7:30 AM and finished up about 7:45 PM. I worked some in the attic in the morning (the only time it’s bearable up there), and threw down some stuff to take to the storage unit, as well as some stuff I dragged to the curb for the garbage to pick up. I found my old footlocker and got even more nostalgic and misty-eyed. 🙂 I’ve had that blue footlocker since I was a pre-teen or teen, and it contains papers from my childhood all the way through college.

Sunday was church (guest speaker from a church plant in New Orleans, but still on the same series, Characters who teach Character). The speaker used Jehosheba from 2 Kings 11, who saved the baby Joash from the queen mother Athaliah, who killed all of her grandsons after her son Ahaziah had died. Jehosheba saved the royal line of David, thereby keeping God’s promise, and showed tremendous courage. So this week’s character trait was courage, good sermon 🙂

After church, we stopped by Corner Bakery, but the line was out the door (we were late, had stopped to visit and chat after church), so we went to Walmart instead. I had to get some color safe bleach, mouthwash and I got 2 totes to store stuff from my footlocker in the attic. Since Tim had been working so hard on the fence all week and not playing golf, I told him to pick where he wanted to eat, so of course, he picked Dickey’s BBQ! I have a new plan of action for there, to stay away from some of the meat. I tried a baker (potato) this time and plan to try the Smokehouse Salad next time. I’m still eating pretty bad, but maybe not as much red meat and cholesterol for me. I got the pork tangler potato. Huge baked potato with pulled pork and fried onion strips on top, it was extremely tasty! After our free ice cream, I got Tim to walk next door to Home Goods. I had wanted to look for an Oxo container to store my flax in (I got a HUGE bag at Sam’s, and need something to parcel it out into). I couldn’t find the size I wanted, so I got a glass jar with green lid instead, cute for my new pantry! 🙂

Sunday, we got a rain shower around 1:45, so that sealed it for Tim, he was really too tired to play golf he said. I thought he might cave and go, but after the rain, it was a bit soggier and a lot more humid, so he decided to stay home and rest. After a couple of good naps for him, we rented “NonStop” with Liam Neeson from Amazon video. Good movie! Then we watched an old movie I had recorded on the DVR, the last Twilight one. Then we cleaned up a few tv shows. Oh, and we tried Extant this week on the DVR, the summer sci-fi show with Halle Berry. Tim is on the fence with it, but I sorta liked it. We’ll see how it goes and if we keep up with that one or not.

Now, it’s another Monday and I need to be cleaning house, but I’m very unmotivated. It is hard with boxes and junk everywhere. But we need to get things cleaned up, Tim wants to list the house soon and I dread having to have it ready to show at a moment’s notice. I also hate that he will have to figure out where to go to work if the realtor wants to show it during the day, but that’s a bridge we’ll cross when we get to it 🙂 First, he has to finish the gates and call the fence “done” 😀

Oh, and for food, I made pork fajitas last week, chili dogs, and then we ate out Chinese buffet Friday night. Saturday night I made veggie quesadillas. Sunday we had Dickie’s for lunch, then popcorn with the movie, then Tim made us homemade salsa for supper (I was going to do breakfast food, but he said he was fine with just salsa and chips). Tonight I’m making meatless stuffed peppers and a salad, and I will probably do fried rice and potstickers later this week.

Well… I certainly do ramble about nothing! Not much to report, but there’s another week in the books. One week closer to them finishing the house and us being able to move! I’m so antsy and ready for them to just be done already 😀

Jul
03
Posted by Stace

Random Tidbits

Not a weekly update but a random sampling of items in my head…

* The rice trick with wet electronics really works. We had never had a reason to try it until I dropped one of the house cordless phones into a sink full of dish water last night. Sigh. I’m SO clumsy. It really bothers me. Luckily, Tim took out the battery, dried out the unit, we put it all in rice overnight and it’s working fine this morning.

* There are squirrels are all over my bird feeder. Now, this is notable because I also have a squirrel feeder on the other end of my yard. Granted, it is currently devoid of eat-able corn, but still. I miss Beau, he was my squirrel hunter. And apparently, I need to investigate getting a squirrel proof bird feeder.

* I haven’t been doing Menu Plan Monday, but thought I’d post what we had this week. I’m on a mission to clean out some stuff from the freezer and pantry. Less to move! This week:

Monday – l had a BEC (bacon egg and cheese) and Tim had a BLT with the one and only tomato he will probably get from his plant. It’s nearly dead 🙁
Tuesday – pork fried rice with homemade pink sauce and potstickers
Wednesday – Crockpot chicken and artichokes over penne pasta, caesar salad
Today (Thursday) – turkey sloppy joes, Harry&David dip with crackers, chips & fruit
Friday – eat at the family reunion (I’m taking crunchy asian slaw and chocolate chip cookies, gotta get in the kitchen this afternoon)
Saturday and Sunday are undecided, but I might make chili dogs for Tim

* Had another Pinterest FAILURE. I made a coffee creamer with sweetened condensed milk that I pinned, and I did NOT like it. Poured almost all of it down the drain this morning. I hate wasting, but I just didn’t like it.

* I had a good time watching the World Cup this summer, Team USA made it to the quarterfinals but lost on Monday to Belgium, such a heart-breaking game. Haven’t watched any Wimbledon, and Tim is looking forward to the British open (golf)

* Tim is drinking tea now at home and no Coke Zero… yeah! We used to buy cases of Coke Zero at Sam’s Club, and he’s now gotten off of them almost totally, at least at home. I think he gets Cokes out at the golf course, and I know if we go out for burgers or pizza, he gets one, but he’s doing MUCH better!

* And lastly, I’m a basil killer. Every year. Every.Single.Year. My plant starts out great and then once they start flowering, they go downhill fast. Now, it rained every day last week and I think my basil got too wet, it looks horrible. Half the stems are dark brown, I guess from water rot. Sigh, I think my oregano is almost gone too.

I’m sure there’s lots of other random thoughts floating around my brain, but that is all for now! Whew! 🙂

Jun
30
Posted by Stace

Monday, Monday

Time for my weekly update as to what we did in the week past… boring, I know! But it helps me keep up with what’s going on 🙂

Last week we stayed pretty busy again. Wednesday, we met with the decorator who works with our builder, and spent pretty much the whole day picking out items for the house. First granite, then tile, backsplash, travertine for the master countertops, carpet, etc. Then fixtures, lights, fans, faucets, sinks, toilets, etc etc etc. Long day and I hope everything turns out ok. Tim picked the light fixtures for the foyer, dining room, breakfast room and the pendants over the island. He sees things better than I do, so I trust his judgement 🙂 We took the standard set of appliances that our builder uses. We picked out a fridge, but are probably going to end up getting it on our own from Lowe’s.

After we finished, in a nice soaking downpour, we met Kathryn and Katelyn in Clinton and brought Katelyn back with us, to stay till Friday. Katelyn got to pick what she wanted to eat and do while she stayed with us, so she picked pizza for supper Wednesday night. We all ate the pizza buffet at Pizza Inn near us, then went to check on the house. Katelyn was the first one to see some of the brick installed! They had the back screened in porch done, and some along the back. After the house, we ran by Lowe’s to look at refrigerators. We found one quite a bit cheaper than at the contractor’s place, which really surprised us.

Thursday was a busy day for Katelyn and I while Uncle Tim worked hard (he had a project going in this weekend, so had a lot of work to do on Thursday and Friday). I talked to Katelyn Thursday morning about what we were going to eat for lunch and dinner and found out she didn’t like those things! I thought all kids liked grilled cheese, but she vetoed that for lunch, so off we go to Kroger to stock up on things she liked to eat. We got hummus, carrots, Twizzlers, hamburger buns and meat, doritoes, cherries and a lot of other fruit. Aunt Stacy wanted to watch the USA play in the World Cup match, so we did that when we got home. After the soccer match (which we lost, 0-1 to Germany, but we’re still not eliminated!), we went to feed the ducks and geese. After that, we went to visit Aunt Suzanne and her cat Swatch. After that, we stopped at the library to get a new book to read at bedtime 🙂 Katelyn picked “Henry, the Dog with No Tail”, which was quite good! Katelyn watched some streaming kids shows while I fixed supper (Uncle Tim was at the golf course till dark) and we had supper. After a bath and the bedtime story, she got a good’s night sleep. She’s a very good houseguest 🙂 We stayed home on Friday and played games and Hayday on the ipad!

Friday night, we met Jeremy, Kathryn and Sam at Pizza Inn (yes, again, it was Katelyn’s pick and Sam was all for it, LOL!) and had supper. Suzanne came and visited with us while we all ate, then we all went to check on the house. Unfortunately, with the rain, they had not done anything since we were there Wednesday night, boo hiss. Jeremy, Kathryn and the kids visited till late, so it was great to see them and catch up.

Saturday was a busy day. Tim had an early tee time (7:20, so he left around 6:20) and shot a great round – he shot 71 at Lake Caroline! He had lunch with the guys he played with, and I had some fruit, carrots and hummus after he got home. I had spent the morning packing while he played golf. I got about 12 boxes packed and Tim helped me tape them up and get them stacked in the dining room, waiting for a trip to the storage unit. Tim went out to cut the grass, and it started raining before he was quite finished. I went out and helped for a while, picking up stuff he had trimmed and picking up golf balls in the back. We both got a bit damp (me, damp, Tim, soaked) 🙂 Saturday night we stayed in, and had leftovers (popcorn for me), homemade ice cream that I made and watched stuff on the DVR.

Sunday was church, brunch at Corner Bakery. Tim had a tee time for 2:30 with some buddies, but his parents had called Saturday late to say they were coming to town. So, I planned to go meet them for lunch and shop with the girls while the guys went to the new Harbor Freight. However, Tim’s buddies had other stuff come up too, so he ended up not going to play golf and went with me to meet his parents and Terry and Emi. They ate at Zaxby’s, while we visited with them. After that, we split up and the girls went to the mall and Tim, Terry and Mitchell went to the tool store. After the mall, the girls stopped at Walmart then we all met up at Sam’s. I had a few things to get at Sam’s so we shopped while Terry stocked up for the store. Emi had brought us tamales that her friend Rosie had made, so we had those for supper when we got home (along with guacamole that I made). We watched more stuff on the DVR and then Tim had to work starting at 11 PM.

Today is Monday and Tim has a busy day at work. We are supposed to go meet with the carpenter sometime today to go over the cabinets, closets, etc at the new house. It seems that the rain is going to stop for a few days, I think it rained every day last week, so I will have to get back into the habit of watering my flowers and herbs soon. Bummer. 🙂

Jun
23
Posted by Stace

Recap

Another recap of our weekend, that appears to be the only blogging I do these days! But at least that’s better than nothing. I used to blog daily, when I first started, and do lots of memes and questions and fun things. I think those things are mostly gone in blog-land, or are they still out there floating around? I used to do Menu Plan Monday and I know that one is still going strong. I am just not as good at coming up with a firm menu as I used to be! I’ve learned to be more flexible with food, especially during prime golf season!

Anyhoo, I digress. Last week was pretty busy, with Zack here early in the week, then Elizabeth came over one day to hang out and show us her new Macbook from school. Wednesday and Thursday, Tim worked on the deck, cleaning it and putting on more protectant (man, I’m going to miss my deck!) We went after work on Thursday to take a few boxes to the storage unit and also check on the house. Tim played some golf, I did some reading (just finished Take a Chance on Me by Susan May Warren and The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd, both of which I loved!). The week flew by!

By the time Friday rolled around, we were ready for a weekend! Tim played golf after work and I made us a huge platter of nachos for supper. We both overate, but they were really good! Dessert was frozen chocolate/vanilla swirl yogurt. By the time Tim got in, it was too late for a movie, so we just watched TV shows from the DVR.

Saturday, he got up early for a 7:30 tee time. He was supposed to play 18 with a group, but he came in early, as one of the older guys in his group was dizzy and they were all afraid he was getting heat stroke, so they quit after 9. He was originally going to bring home Chick Fil A for him, me and Suzanne, but we shifted gears and called Suzanne to let her know. She came over and we all went to eat lunch at Majestic Burger. I got my regular fish sandwich (grilled mahi mahi on wheat), Tim got a chicken philly and we split onion rings. We also got the fried portobella bites to share with Suzanne, and I believe she got a big salad. It was all really good! We wanted to take Suzanne to see the house, but she had plans, so we went ourselves instead. The sheetrock was pretty much complete, there were 2 workers in there finishing up sealing the joints between sheets. The house next door that is nearly complete but not sold was having an open house, so I finally got to go look around. It’s a lot bigger than I thought, it’s two story, with a huge bonus room, bathroom and two large storage areas on the second floor. It’s about 200 or 300 more square feet, we thought, and Zillow lists the asking price at about 18,000 more than ours. So, hopefully we’ll have nice neighbors! Anyway, we looked at other houses in the area that are being built, and noticed that the other two lots by our builder down at the end of the street had sold, so he is completely sold out on our street. After we got home, we watched some tv and movies. Tim watched World War Z, streaming free on Amazon Prime, but I skipped that one to read my book. Then we both watched GI Joe:Retaliation, also on Amazon. I fixed us a healthy supper of panko baked cod and a big Caesar salad, since we had the two bad meals previously of nachos and Majestic.

Sunday was busy with church (still in the Characters who teach Character series, this week was Elijah) and then we went to brunch afterwards at Corner Bakery. Tim had a tee time of 3:05 but it started raining around 1 PM and he called at 2:15 to cancel. It stopped about 2:30 and then he and Braxton went to play 9 holes and practice at around 5 PM. I finished my book and worked on a pile of magazines while he was gone. After he got in, we had breakfast for supper, then watched the last 2 episodes of Crisis. I think that both Believe and Crisis were cancelled, which is a shame, we enjoyed those shows.

Now, it’s Monday and we’re back to the regular routine. We meet with the decorator on Wednesday, to pick out things for the house. Tim has to take another day of vacation, supposed to take the better part of the day. I’m sure this week will fly by, or at least I hope so! They are supposed to be starting on the brick for the house, so I’m hoping by this coming weekend, it will be fully bricked! Getting closer, but still a LONG way to go and I go back and forth, being anxious and not anxious to go ahead and move! LOL!

Jun
18
Posted by Stace

Hump Day Catch-Up

Last weekend flew by (again) and I never got a chance to blog about it. Time to catch up 🙂

Last Friday night, we went over to Suzanne’s new apartment for Tim to help with some stuff. He worked on the dryer (and we had to make a quick trip to Lowe’s) and was going to work on some of her electronics, tv/surround sound, but she was tired so we didn’t get started on that. She is settling in and I hope she is doing better. Sometimes hard to tell 🙂

Saturday was busy. I had originally thought that Tim would play golf, since he almost always does, but he said he wanted to get some other stuff done. We visited a long time outside with our neighbors, Rick and Sharon, whom we are going to miss horribly. We will see them at church, but it’s not the same as living next door to someone for 20+ years 🙁 Main objective of the day: We went and rented a storage unit to start moving stuff into. Tim cleaned out the garage for a while, loaded a pickup truck bed full of stuff, and we moved it into the storage unit. It’s near the new house, so of course… we had to go check on the house! We spent more time there than I would have liked – it’s still in the wiring stage, so right up Tim’s alley. But I can only look so long at electrical wiring, surround sound wiring, internet/ethernet cables, plumbing, etc. After that, we came home and I made a pizza using the items from the Fresh Market Big Meal deal that I had gotten on Thursday with Gail. (Did I blog about that? Gail and Don came down Thursday, so Tim and Don could play golf. Gail got her first visit to the house, then we went to Fresh Market and Marshalls and TJ Maxx. They left early Friday AM, like 5:30 AM!!). Anyway, the pizza was good and we watched either TV or a movie, I have already forgotten!

Sunday was a tough day, but turned out better than I had hoped. My first Father’s Day without my Dad. We went to church (where I teared up multiple times). Our pastor’s father (also a pastor) gave the message, part of the series we are in, Characters who Teach Character. This week was Abraham. Our pastor’s father is also celebrating 50 years of ministry, and had once been a pastor in our church, so it was a really nice, really moving service. After church, we changed clothes and headed to Tim’s parents house for the day. We got to visit all day with Tim’s parents, Terry, Emi, Brittany and Zack and also had lunch with Jackie, Stephanie, Tony, Ramsey, Tyler and the twins. The only ones missing were Mark, Amanda and the kids. We were so hoping they would come, since Tim took off work for Monday and Tuesday, as we were planning to bring Ethan home with us for a couple of days. Anyway, we stayed until dark and headed home, and Zack followed us back. He did stay and played golf both days with Tim.

Monday, I caught up on housecleaning and also did some cooking. I made banana bread and crockpot maple bbq chicken for sandwiches and fresh green beans that Linda had sent home with us (YUM!). Tim got Zack to help load up the treadmill and they took that to the storage unit, then played golf all day at Lake Caroline. After they came in around 5 PM, we had supper, and then headed to Malco to see “Edge of Tomorrow” with Tom Cruise. We all really enjoyed it!

Tuesday was another day of golf for Tim and Zack. They played twice out at Patrick Farms, then Zack headed home. Tim came in really tired and a bit sunburned, but he had a great time playing, so he was happy. We had leftovers for supper and caught up on more tv on the DVR.

Today, today is hump day and the time is still flying by. On one hand, it is and on the other, more dominant hand, the one that wants to move to the new house, time seems to be dragging! Several more months on the house. I’m ready for it to be done. Tim and Zack stopped by Monday and they had started on the insulation, including the special Pro Pink insulation we are adding to our custom build. They should finish insulation, do sheetrock and probably brick in the next 7-10 days, so it will look more like a real house then, no more studs showing! 🙂

Jun
04
Posted by Stace

At This Moment…

* I’m reading a free Kindle book, “Abducted” by Janice Cantore. The second in the Pacific Justice series. Read the first and enjoyed it, so thought I’d go ahead and read the second one. I also recently read two from my library’s website, the first two books in the slightly Amish themed series “The Inn at Eagle Hill” by Suzanne Woods Fisher. Was glad to find them at my library and get them for free. I also recently read the latest by Francine Rivers, “Bridge to Haven”, also from my library. Deciding what to read is the only problem I ever have. I think I have over 830 titles unread on my Kindle, a nice wish list at the library, Kindle Prime books I can borrow, etc etc etc. Finding time and selecting the book is the only real issue for me these days 😀

* I’ve started my annual summer watch-a-thon of the Harry Potter movies. Most of our shows have ended for the spring and even though we pick up a few shows in the summer on cable, I still have plenty of time to watch Harry and his friends. We are also re-watching several of the Marvel movies together lately… Tim and I have watched Thor, Iron Man 3 and The Avengers in the past couple of weeks

* I’m not cooking much. We had a ton of food last week leftover from our Memorial Day cookout, then Tim grilled burgers over the weekend. After all that meat (ribs, hot dogs and burgers), he decided he needed to eat lighter. So, Sunday he declared that this week would be salad week. We got some grilled shrimp at Sam’s, a big thing of lettuce, veggies and mushrooms, and have been having salads every night. Tim, bless his heart, tells me that he is losing a pound a day. Me, on the other hand, I’ve gained about .8 of a pound. Go figure.

* We started a new summer series at church. Looks like another good one, as always. The title is “Characters Who Teach Character” and focuses on patriarchs and figures from the Old Testament. Solomon and wisdom was the first week. This week will be Daniel, but we won’t be there to hear it. We’re going to Tim’s family’s church for their 100th anniversary celebration.

* The sun is shining today, for the first time in a while. We’ve had very unseasonable weather since Tuesday of last week (the day after Memorial Day). It has rained every day. I have so enjoyed not having to get out and water the grass, plants and flowers. I was very dismayed though, since they were framing the house (wood and water don’t mix in my mind) and then trying to get the roof on. The contractors know what they are doing, I suppose, so I’m not supposed to worry, Tim says 🙂

* I’ve packed about 10 boxes and still haven’t made a dent in anything. I want to pack more, but keep thinking, I will need that or use that or whatever. I guess the majority of the packing will have to be done in the last couple of weeks before we close.

* I’m not walking or exercising at all. Big fat slug. But it has been raining and I’m just not motivated.

* My sister and her husband celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary this week! Congratulations to Don and Gail 😀

* On a snack kick lately of honey mustard pretzels. Cannot seem to eat enough of them. And my summer drink is an organic strawberry lemonade I found at Kroger. So good, I could drink a whole jar every day, but try to limit myself to one glass every day or so. Oh, and I still have chocolate every day, of some kind. Life is too short not to enjoy it 🙂

Ok, boring post, but it catches me up a little on what’s going on.

May
27
Posted by Stace

Memorial Day weekend

We had a quiet, uneventful (but sort of busy!) Memorial Day weekend. I spent a lot of it thinking about my Dad, whom I really miss. I went and got him last year and he spent the day with us, and loved the ribs that Tim fixed for him 🙂

Let’s see, Tim got off a bit early Friday afternoon and went to play golf with a buddy from work. He had worked the Sunday night before, so left a little early. I tried to make good use of the time and started doing some cleaning, purging, packing. I got some books together for the library and packed my first box. Tim got back earlier than normal, so I offered to take him out on date night, to his choice. He loves Dickie’s BBQ, even though I do not. I can’t make healthy choices in a place that mostly has meat and carbs. They do have salads, but I have yet to try one, as I never see one on anyone’s plate! I was good though, and only ate half of mine and brought the rest home. He always says the allure of Dickie’s is the free ice cream, and we both had that, so maybe I wasn’t so good after all 😀

Saturday, he had a really early tee time, 6:20 AM, so he was up in the 5 AM hour and out the door. I tried and tried to go back to sleep, but couldn’t. So I got up and went walking, logged 4.45 miles. I did some chores around the house and more cleaning, tossing, purging. I went down and visited with one of our neighbors for a couple of hours. That has been one of the hardest things, telling our wonderful neighbors we are moving and leaving here. We will sorely miss them, I’ve lived next to them for over 20 years and they are not only neighbors, but friends.

Tim brought us home Chick-Fil-A for lunch, then after a bit of a rest, he got busy painting the doors. He had stripped the front and back doors of paint and primer a couple of weeks ago. He went to Home Depot and had intended to order new doors, but ended up just getting new glass inserts. He installed those when he first stripped them. So, now he just put on a fresh coat of paint, and they look really good. Saturday night, we relaxed and watched Thor (recorded from TV on the DVR). I do love me some Marvel movies. We also caught up on Agents of Shield tv shows on Saturday and Monday nights.

Sunday was busy with church (we had a patriotic program by Denver and the Mile High Orchestra, which I really enjoyed). We went to brunch afterwards. Tim got a second breakfast, pancakes and eggs and I opted for lunch. I got the trio, with lemon chicken orzo soup, fruit and a side salad. We stopped by Kroger after that, to pick up all the stuff for me to make the stuff for Memorial Day. Tim went and played golf late on Sunday, but had a good time. He got back a bit before dark, which worked out perfectly. One of our wonderful neighbors had brought us over some crawfish. I wanted to sit out on the deck and eat crawfish one last time, so we did. Good memories 🙂

Monday, we got up early to start food preparations. Tim smoked a couple slabs of ribs, and also grilled hot dogs and corn for me. I made potato salad, crunchy slaw, and baked beans. Suzanne and Elizabeth came over to eat with us and stayed for a while to visit. We started watching XMen:First Class on our blu-ray, but Suzanne left before it was over. Elizabeth stayed and finished it. We were glad to see both of them. We spent time Monday evening catching up on stuff on the DVR. It had gotten really full the last couple of months, so we are slowly whittling our way through shows and movies.

Tuesday means back to the regular routine, except that Tuesday after a holiday always feels like a Monday. I have all of my Monday chores to do, plus watering too. This will be my last summer of hauling hoses and sprinklers around our yard – the new house will have an in-ground irrigation system installed, hooray!

Jan
30
Posted by Stace

End of January, already?

How on earth can it be the end of January already? Wow, the first year of the month has really flown by.

Let’s see… I’ve been sick the last few days. I got a sore throat and it just went downhill from there. I felt like I was gargling glass when I tried to swallow, and then I lost my voice. While Tim thoroughly enjoyed that time, I did not 🙂 I had several days of OTC medicine and lots of hot tea with honey, and now I’m getting better. Good thing too! We’ve had another round of really cold weather. We had a dusting of snow yesterday (and I didn’t take a SINGLE photo, horror!) but it barely covered the deck. I miss Beau when it snows though, that dog was fascinated with snow! It was SO COLD. The highs the last couple of days have been in the 20’s, with the lows at night in the low teens. Yikes, we’re having a cold winter!

I didn’t cook a whole lot over the weekend, since I was sick. We ate out some junk food, and just had easy stuff like cereal and popcorn 🙂 I finally cooked us some decent food this week. I made a chicken noodle soup on Monday, Tuesday I made a panko baked cod, stuffed zucchini and salad. Wednesday was a Tim favorite, eggs, bacon, grits and homemade buttermilk biscuits. Today, I’ve got a tomato basil soup going in the crockpot and if I get industrious enough, I’ll make chicken crescents to go with it and maybe a salad. I’m not planning on date night for tomorrow (since we picked up a lot of food last weekend while I was sick), so I’m hoping to make sloppy joes and roast a head of cauliflower I have languishing in the produce drawer 😀

The Super Bowl is this weekend and I’m not all that excited about it. When our Saints got eliminated from the playoffs, we sort of lost interest in football. It’s harder to get excited since we don’t have parties any more. It’s just so hard for friends and family to come over late on Sundays, with having to drive back home late. It definitely makes it more fun to watch the game, but it is a lot more work, so it’s sort of a toss up on how much I enjoy having a big party versus getting to just watch the game without all the extra work. For the record, I’m rooting for the Broncos. I’ve always liked Peyton Manning (except the year he and the Colts played my Saints, that was a no brainer, but otherwise I root for him) and I’d like to see him win one more before his career is over. Tim and I DESPISE the Seahawks, it’s an NFC thing. Blech.

I am not doing well on my reading so far this year… I had hoped to be further along this far into January. I sort of struggled through a recent book, one I purchased at a reduced rate on Kindle called “Sherlock Holmes and the Needle’s Eye”. Maybe it was the writing or the subject matter, or maybe I was just not in the mood for that type of book. I moved onto a more enjoyable one after Sherlock, the second Jane Austen Takes the South book by Mary Jane Hathaway. Apparently there are only two of these, but I thoroughly enjoyed both, very very Southern 🙂 I just started Sycamore Row, by John Grisham. My sister Suzanne read it first, and recommended it. I went ahead and splurged and bought it around Black Friday when I found it reduced for Kindle. Now, I see my library has it for free in the Kindle version, oh well. This way, Tim might be able to read it sometime on my iPad. I normally enjoy Grisham so I have high hopes for this one.

Watched Jack Reacher again last night on Amazon Prime streaming. We saw it at the theater and really liked it, so it was good to watch again. I think a lot of our shows will be tapering off soon, with the Olympics starting up soon. We’ll have to see how our TV watching changes, which translates to, will I be able to get Tim to watch Olympics coverage with me! I like it a lot more than he does.

Tim is still enjoying P90X. Me, not so much. We’ve moved into phase 3, and he’s tickled pink. Me, I’d like to chuck the dvd’s and throw a sledgehammer at ole Tony’s face on the TV. Ugh. Tim did it last winter and lost over 30 pounds. Me doing it this winter, I *might* be down 2-3 pounds, but I think that’s from more eating healthy than anything. Obviously, I’m getting out of it exactly what I put into it!

Hope everyone is having a great day!

Oct
03
Posted by Stace

A Little of This and a Lot of That

Let’s see, time to do another little catch-up post…

September, thankfully, has now come and gone, and it’s October! One of my most favorite months of the year, if not THE favorite. I’m ready for fall! It’s supposed to cool off a bit this weekend and one night is predicted to be in the low 50’s. I’m ready!

Last weekend was fairly busy. We went to see Katelyn and Sam (and their cousins) play soccer. We picked up my dad about 8:30 AM and drove out to Clinton to their soccer fields. Katelyn played first, followed by her twin cousins, Keaton and Logan, and then Sam played at 11. Well, Sam’s game was not really full blown soccer, but they were out there having fun and trying to kick the ball and score. Sam seems to enjoy the sidelines, drinking his Gatorade and spitting on the field the most! Like most 5 year old boys, I assume. I took a bunch of pictures of all the soccer players, but haven’t transferred them yet, hopefully soon! Afterwards, we all packed up (about 20 or more of us) and went to the Blue Rooster for burgers. Tim and I have been wanting to go to the Blue Rooster in Flora, not realizing they had one out in Clinton. It was really good. Gail and Don tried the vegetarian burgers and said they were good, I might get that next time. I had a good old fashioned beef burger, built my own, with sauteed mushrooms and swiss cheese. After lunch, we took my dad back to his assisted living place, and after we swung back by the house, Tim and Don left to go play golf at Lake Caroline. Gail and I decided to go shopping. We went to Target for a while (I got a new fall purse, burgundy or claret, whatever they call the color these days), and some things for Halloween. We also went by Sam’s Club for a few things. After playing, the guys wanted to meet at Dickies for supper. Neither Gail nor I were very hungry, so we mostly entertained the guys while they ate ribs.

Sunday was equally busy. We went to church (really good service, we’re in the Exponential series, a study of Ephesians) and then home to change. We picked up my dad again and headed to Tim’s parents house. The kitchen is almost completely done (everything but the oven), and it looks fantastic! Linda cooked a great lunch (pork roast, rice and gravy, sweet potatoes, green beans, rolls and banana pudding for dessert) and we got to eat at the new kitchen table. I should have taken pictures, but didn’t. After lunch, we visited a few hours before heading home. After dropping off my dad, Tim and I went home to eat leftovers (Mr. Chen’s from Friday night, a full weekend of overeating!) and watch Sunday night football.

Monday, Tim was ready to start back with P90X. He’s doing his best to talk me into doing it with him. I’m not much into exercise, especially of the extreme variety. But, he said he’d start back walking some with me, so I agreed to give it a shot. I won’t be able to do it every day like he will, as this week was fairly free, but next week I get back to having to take my dad somewhere at least once a week. I am not overdoing it, in fact, I can barely do a lot of the exercises. Day 1 was an hour of pushups, pullups and situps. For the push-ups, I did 1 or 2, where the fanatics and Tim did 25 or 30. But, I am trying and that’s better than sitting my butt on the couch. I need to be better with my portions, the eating and snacking are what really help me pack on the pounds, I think.

Speaking of… I’ve been doing a lot of cooking this week, LOL! I’ve pulled out my crockpot for the week. Monday night, the Saints played the Dolphins (both undefeated going into the game, and we’re now 4-0!!!), and so I made a french dip all day in the crockpot, along with homemade buns, roasted broccoli and oven sweet potato fries. Tuesday, I made Tim biscuits and we had breakfast food. Wednesday, I made red beans and rice in the crockpot. Today, I’m going to try a new recipe I pinned on Pinterest for a crockpot beef and broccoli. I had also planned to make a pizza, but that may get pushed back a few days. The fridge is full of leftovers, plus food I bought at Kroger yesterday. I was pleasantly surprised to find that several items in the bulk bins at Kroger were marked half off. I certainly hope they are not getting rid of them, or phasing them out. Our Whole Foods across town has not opened yet, not sure how many months before it will be open, not to mention, it’s more than 10 miles down there. Anyway, I didn’t need a lot from the bulk bins, but since walnuts, dried cherries, steel cut oats and roasted pumpkin seeds were marked 50% off, I loaded up! 🙂

Most all of our TV shows are back on now, which is great. Tim cut our cable package the other day. We were in a promotion that gave us all of the premium movie channels and it expired on October 1. So he cut those and cut back on our tier. Not going to save us a lot of money, but every little bit helps. Plus, with football and all the new shows back on, we definitely don’t need the movie channels. We can stream movies from Amazon or Apple TV, or I can get most new releases at the library (just have to request and wait for them, most of the time). We still have several movies on the DVR that I recorded from the pay channels while we had them, that we still have not watched. I’m mostly about football these days, along with NCIS, Person of Interest, Elementary, Blue Bloods, and a couple of new ones, especially The Blacklist. Tim loves that one 🙂

I’m not reading nearly as much as I was earlier in the year. I’m reading my Bible and Jesus Calling Devotional every day, and plugging along with books. Current book I’m reading is one I actually bought, Double Cross by James David Jordan (read the first one, Forsaken, and loved it, so I knew that if I found the second one free or discounted, I would get it. Paid 2.99 and it’s worth every penny so far!). I will go over 100 in the next few weeks, well surpassing the goal I set. I might even beat my previous high goal of 104, if I can keep it up 😀

OK, nothing exciting, but I guess that mostly catches me up, LOL!

Aug
13
Posted by Stace

Daily Slice

Let’s see… today is Tuesday August 13. Maybe, just maybe, I might make it through August after all! Seeing light at the end of the tunnel!

* 18 days till kick off at The Rock, which is the beginning of college football season for us! Hoping for a better season than last year (0 wins, truly deplorable, and the worst in 18 seasons).

* Preseason football has started. The Saints won their opener (yes, I know it’s preseason and it doesn’t count). This just means one thing – real football is just around the corner!

* Quiet weekend for me – Tim played in the Whisper Lake club championship this past weekend and was gone almost all day Saturday and Sunday. He was so disappointed – he didn’t putt well and came in fourth in his flight (the top three win prizes!). He was still so upset about it on Monday that he didn’t go to play golf! Bonus for me, he stayed home, grilled out chicken and veggies for me. And then we rented a movie from Amazon Prime, the remake of Red Dawn. Turned out to be a pretty spectacular Monday for me 🙂

* Last Friday, we got to see Tim’s old Air Force friend Beth and her husband. They came through town, driving a US Army 18 wheeler, transporting stuff to Fort Polk. We went to Cock of the Walk to eat and visit, then back here for a bit before they had to get back on the road. I had never met Beth or her husband Mike, so that was great 🙂

* Going to be a busy week this week – haircut for me tomorrow, got some errands to run. Then taking my dad to his retina doctor appointment on Thursday. Friday I’ll probably grocery shop and might go to Sam’s. Saturday we’re tentatively scheduled to go over to my in-laws, for Tim to help more on the kitchen renovation. Depends on what they get done this week. Cabinets should be in, and Tim is needed to help with flooring and mouldings.

* Since Tim was gone most all weekend, I didn’t have to cook a lot. We ordered pizza one night (cashed in my Papa Johns points, so the pizza was free!), and I make homemade ice cream another night:

New recipe for snickerdoodle. We both liked it, very cinnamon-y. Mine, of course, was better with chocolate syrup poured on it. Tim did say that the last new one I tried (hot cocoa ice cream) was better than this one though, so file that away for next summer!

* Current Kindle book I’m reading: Heart of Stone by Jill Marie Landis. Just finished two I really enjoyed – “The Deposit Slip” by Todd M. Johnson (legal thriller, sort of like a Grisham) and “Paid in Blood” by Mel Odom (NCIS book, very similar to the series, but obviously a different team, good characters though). I’m currently ahead of where my goal shows I should be, on track to read at least 100 books this year. I’m hoping to top my all-time record, which was 104 a couple of years back.

* Currently watching: still enjoying summer shows. Looking forward to football and new fall shows. Recording several movies off pay channels. Rented Red Dawn last night from Amazon Video (love the new apps on our Samsung Smart TV!). I’ve been re-watching all the Harry Potters in order. On my third or fourth time through, currently about to start Order of the Phoenix.

* Current weather – finally got hot in August. Did have a nice rain last Friday. Most of my flowers are nearly dead, and I’m good with that 🙂 Hopefully will rain today and/or tomorrow – 60 % chance both days.

* Current want – I still want to get a dog. Tim is not ready. Sigh. I’ve found two on Petfinder and have tried to get him to go to the shelter and check them out. Now, they’ve both been adopted. While I’m glad they’ve found good homes, I want a dog. I miss my Beau, horribly, every day, and want a new puppy to love. Tim doesn’t seem to understand, he’s busy with golf and not really wanting a dog these days. Sniff sniff.

* Current time waster – Pinterest. Man, can I lose a lot of time just going through pins and reading blogs and stuff. Ugh.

Aug
05
Posted by Stace

Monday Catch-Up

Catching up on a few things we’ve been doing lately. It’s gotten HOT, after a fairly mild summer. It’s now hitting the mid 90’s every day with heat indexes in the 100-105 range every day. That does not deter Tim from playing golf, however!

Let’s see, last week turned out to be fairly busy. Gail came Tuesday evening, so she could spend the whole day with Katelyn and Sam on Wednesday. Tim and I went over to Elizabeth’s on Wednesday during lunch. We brought her lunch and Tim took the battery charger, since she had called to say her car wouldn’t crank. We thought we had her fixed, and headed back. Gail spent all day with the kids, and decided to stay Wednesday night too. Thursday, we ran some errands, had lunch, and went to visit Fred. We went to Corner Bakery, one of our favorites, to have lunch. I like their trio (you can pick from 3 of their side salad options or soup), and I had spring asparagus soup, caesar salad and mixed fruit. Yummy! We stopped at Freshway Produce on the way back from visiting Fred, and picked up some produce. I also found some metal door hangers like I have been wanting. Instead of opting for the letter ‘H’, I ended up buying a beautiful multi-colored cross.

Gail and I got home and tried to hang the cross, and realized it wouldn’t work on the metal door hanger I had for our front door. So, I realized I needed to go get a big suction hook. So, when Gail left heading home, I went to Walmart (should have gone to Michaels, thought about it, but decided to pick up a few other things at Walmart). I found a set in the crafts section, but when I tried one at home, it wasn’t strong enough to hold the metal cross. So, Tim and I headed out Friday night, and we stopped at Michaels and got a much bigger and stronger one. We also went to Mr. Chens for supper. We splurged and got an appetizer (crab rangoon), then 3 entrees to split (to be fair, I like to get vegetables, so that always adds an additional dish). We got the mixed veggies, sesame chicken for Tim and rice noodles with shrimp to split. We had a lot of leftovers to bring home, which is always nice! We also went to the grocery in the back, since I wanted to get a new wok:

I haven’t even taken it out of the wrapping yet! I like the look and feel of it, but I’m a little hesitant to use it. I’ve always, only, ever had a nonstick wok. This one is going to take some getting used to, I think, especially on my new smooth top stove. I’m still struggling with a few things on the new burners. Anyway, I can always go back and get a nonstick one if I don’t like this one. I hope to try it in the next week or two, so an update soon 🙂

After supper, we walked down to Northern Tool to look for a new grill brush for Tim, but they were closing. So, we got in the car and were heading to Academy to look for the brush, when we came up towards Bops. Tim offered ice cream for dessert, so I was bad and took him up on his offer! We were good and just got frozen yogurt with one topping each (Tim got Snickers, I got butterfinger). Mine was in a waffle bowl, so mine was more better 😀

At Academy, we got the grill brush and also looked at patio furniture on clearance. I found something I liked but I don’t think Tim liked it as much. I guess we’ll wait till next year to spend money on that. Ours is 12 years old and all but one of the chairs has a torn seat (the fabric has just given out and rotted, out in the sun). I think the grill is enough to tide us over and get us through football season. We don’t tend to spend much time on the deck this time of year, or during football season. We just grill out, then hurry back in the AC to eat 🙂

Saturday, Tim had an early tee time, and got home around lunch. I made hummus (still have to work on the recipe, my seasoning needs to be better) and had that with pita bread and fruit for lunch. Tim picked him up Chick-Fil-A on the way in. After we ate, he had a long nap, and we watched a little TV, we decided to go to Ace Hardware and get Fred another grabber stick. He had mentioned to me and Gail on Thursday that he wanted another one for his front door, to get his paper he had just started getting delivered. We got that, then went to visit Fred, who promptly informed me he didn’t want another grabber stick, he already had two! But, he took it, and we visited awhile. We moved furniture twice for him, he is not happy with the way his unit is laid out. I see furniture shopping in his future, from the way he was talking! After we left there, we went to Lowe’s to pick up a few things, then swung through Tony’s Tamales for the first time, for Tim to try their food. I opted to go home and eat more pita bread, hummus and fruit. He got the tamale dinner with chili and cheese and really enjoyed. I tasted it and would be ok with it. Next time he wants to try plain, traditional tamales.

Sunday was busy with church, swinging through Fresh Market, then Tim going to play golf. Elizabeth had more battery trouble, so Tim went to jump her off, then she came over here later Sunday to hang out, eat dinner and spend the night with us. She is busy at school, getting her room ready and getting ready to begin her new teaching career. She’s very excited, and we’re so happy and excited for her 🙂

OK, that mostly wraps up our mundane weekend. 😀

Jul
31
Posted by Stace

More on Food…

Well, since we no longer have my sweet baby Beau, I find that lately about the only thing I have to take photos of, is food. If you look through my phone’s camera roll or my Instagram, it’s mostly food related photos these days. So very boring 🙂

Believe it or not, I tried two new recipes yesterday, but didn’t take a single photo of either one! I also made another recipe that I’d tried once before, and failed to take a photo of it. I’ll have to make them again, because I like to include photos when I post recipes that I make over at our website (recipes on Hambones here).

Yesterday at lunch, I decided to make a smoothie (very out of the ordinary for me!) I got industrious last week and froze some fresh fruit (blueberries, strawberries and chunks of banana). I also bought two bags of frozen fruit at Kroger. So, yesterday I did a quick one with blueberries, mango, greek yogurt and almond milk. My almond milk is unsweetened, so I had to add some agave. I halved the recipe, thinking Tim wouldn’t want any, but then he wanted to try it. Note to self, next time, make the whole thing! Need to experiment with more flavors and combinations. Anyone got a favorite they make?

Yesterday afternoon, I was watching one of my favorite shows, The Chew. They had on guest host Curtis Stone, who made a nectarine chutney (but his used mustard seed, which I don’t have on hand). So, since I had some overripe nectarines, I got online and found a similar recipe. I’ve never tried to make a chutney before, but it was easy, and quite good! 🙂 Tim grilled himself some pork chops on his new grill, and I made this fruit chutney to go along with the pork. I didn’t eat any meat, tried to be good and ate a spinach salad, some of the chutney and some of this couscous. I also *might* have had a bite of his mashed potatoes, but no meat!

So, I’m not really back into much of a cooking groove, but I am trying to try a few new things here and there. I keep pinning things to Pinterest and never trying them, so it’s good to finally move a couple of pins to the Success or Fail board 😀

Jul
29
Posted by Stace

Grocery Run

*Disclaimer: Another catch-up post from over on Tumblr, getting it migrated to the blog now that we are back up and running*

Made a big grocery run this past Friday (July 26). Tim had gotten the grill put together and wanted to try out his new searing burner on a steak. So I pushed up my normal grocery shopping till Friday afternoon, so I could get him a ribeye and me a large salmon filet from the seafood department.

Also in this trip, along with some prices:

* Cherries! On sale this week for 1.99 a pound. I only splurge a few times a year, this is my second batch of cherries. (Pictured, from my Instagram feed)

* Found a gallon of milk marked down on manager’s special for 2.00. Bought it instead of the regular 3.69 a gallon price. Got my beloved store brand juice (Kroger lite) for 2.89

* Bought yet another one of these:

Had an e-coupon loaded on my Kroger card for 55 cents off. Normally, I buy the light mocha one, but they were completely out of the light one. Ugh. More calories, which is why I have gained all the weight back that I lost earlier in the year.

* Bought some fresh veggies – asparagus to grill Friday night, some spinach (going to TRY and be good and eat some spinach salads), onions, sweet potatoes, broccoli, green onions, and fruit (cherries and grapes)

* Bought my first container of tofu. Got the organic store brand in firm. No idea what I’m going to do with it, but I want to try. Had some recipes pinned or ideas saved, I think, now I have to go find them and get motivated to try them. Will have to work that into the menu when there’s leftovers for Tim, as I doubt he’ll touch a stir fry or soup with tofu in it 🙂

* Got two items for free, Colgate toothpaste and Orville popcrunch, as part of Kroger’s Free Friday Download. Had downloaded a coupon to my shopper card to get them free. I love free 😀

Gas is going up around here, I think it’s around 3.39 at my Kroger. We’ll get some off that, since we use the Kroger card to earn fuel points. I think I have 40 or 50 cents built up on the card, which will help a lot when it comes to filling up the gas-guzzling vehicles we own!

Jul
21
Posted by Stace

Bullets… and Groceries!

No, I couldn’t think of a good title for a blog post. I’m so not creative and not good with witty titles, witty retorts, or witty anything 🙂

* Had a fun night Friday night. Went out to eat at Krilakis with Tim and Elizabeth. Yes, the same Krilakis we went to the previous Friday night. We appear to be on a roll lately with Greek. In honor of Elizabeth and celebrating her new job, we got double appetizers – pita mozz and hummus. Lamb gyros and fries for Tim, lamb gyro with Greek salad for me. I leave so stuffed, I’m nearly miserable. Came home and watched the Avengers on the new big screen. 🙂

* Busy Saturday. Up early, loaded up food and tools and headed over to my in-laws. Quick stop at Pilot/Flying J for breakfast (souped up decaf coffee for me, Krispy Kreme and scone, Coke and 2 sausage/biscuits for Tim). When I met Tim, I had never been indoctrinated into the world of gas station food. Now, I’m a bit picky about it, but Flying J is one of my favorites. They have good stuff!

* Tim spent all day Saturday working extremely hard at his parents house. They tore out kitchen cabinets, counters, flooring, paneling in the kitchen and dining room. He was tired, but Terry and Mitchell were completely worn out. I visited with Linda, Emi and Brittany. We went to Walmart for totes to finish packing up the dining room, and did a lot of sweeping and toting. We also played on our ipads, so not too tough of a day for the girls 🙂

* We left in time Saturday night to swing by the FedEx place and pick up the delivery we had diverted from our door. Our Onyko receiver has come home! Yippee!

* Sunday, Tim is still worn out. You know he’s tired if the sun is shining and he doesn’t go to play golf! He hooked up the receiver, and… it works! Yippee. So much better with the surround sound and the new TV. He’s happily watching the British Open on his big 5 foot tv 🙂

* Went to the grocery store and got some good deals. Lots of good prices on seasonal fruit and veggies. Had some coupons from Kroger and got good prices on frozen chicken breasts (saved 1.50 on a 3.00 bag), and a prepared baked chicken (saved another 1.50, so instant lunch!). Grapes are 99 cents a pound this week, so I bought a big bag of white grapes. Got them home and washed them. Tasted one, and … ICK! Soft squishy grapes. I do NOT like soft squishy grapes. I like firm grapes. These are almost sour, they are so icky. I’m so disappointed 🙁 On the bright side, I have lots of good sweet strawberries from Sam’s, and we had 2 ears of bicolor corn on the cob with the baked chicken, and that corn was delicious 🙂

Another good weekend in the books!

Jul
15
Posted by Stace

Weekend Wrap-up

A busy weekend at Casa Hammons! Going back to last Wednesday…

Wednesday was the day my dad needed to do his pacemaker check. He has had a pacemaker for about 8 years or more, and does a quarterly check where he hooks a machine up to his chest and it transmits info on the pacemaker to his doctor’s office. He never had any problems (that I know of!) when he lived in his house in Hattiesburg. However, he doesn’t have a dedicated phone line in his apartment at the assisted living place here, and so he never could get it to work. He said he tried 3 places, different things, and finally called the doctor and setup an appointment. He called me Wednesday to “inform” me that he would need me to pick him up Thursday afternoon and take him to the heart clinic at 3 PM. They checked him out, and the machine and said nothing was wrong except maybe user error, and to try it again. So, he’s going to try again this week. Fingers crossed that he figures it out… else, I’ll be driving him to the heart doctor every 3 months!

Thursday was also a fun day, in that Grayson, Ava Clair and Sam came with Gail and met us all for lunch at Newk’s! Elizabeth had gone to Texas the week before and brought Grayson and Ava Clair back with her last weekend. They went to Gail’s for a few days, and then she brought them back on Thursday (plus Sam!), and they got on a plane going home to Texas Thursday night. We were so glad we got to see them. They’ve grown up so much and are so much more mature than in visits past. We had a great time seeing them, we just wished we had been able to spend more time with them 🙂

Friday, my dad was having issues with a prescription, so he wanted me to take him to the doctor’s office to get it fixed. He likes to do things face to face, as opposed to me, who likes to do things over the phone, on the fax, by email, internet, etc. Such polar opposites! So, we went to the doctor, then to Walmart to drop off his new prescription, then over to see Elizabeth and her new house. We visited a while there, then went back and picked up his medicine.

Tim decided not to play golf Friday night, so we had date night! We went to one of our favorites, Krilakis. We splurged and had an appetizer of pita mozz, then each had a gyro. Tim gets his with fries, I get mine with a Greek salad and then we share with each other 🙂 We were so stuffed that we didn’t have baklava for dessert, or go anywhere for sweets afterward. After dinner, we went to Best Buy and Sam’s to price tv’s. I finally gave Tim the go-ahead to get a bigger tv. Our 42″ plasma was fine with me, but he has been wanting a bigger tv for a while now. Our receiver is still being repaired, and we hope it is fixed and sent back soon… definitely need all this stuff in time for football season!

Saturday was golf day for Tim. He played twice, once at 7:30 in the morning and again at 3:30 in the afternoon. I made a big trip to Kroger Saturday morning, and got home around lunch. Not long after, in between his two golf sessions, Tim managed to swing thru Chick-Fil-A and pick us up lunch, which we wolfed down before heading to Sam’s to buy this:

I helped him get it inside, he took the old plasma off the mounting bracket, hung the new Samsung 60″ LED SmartTV one up, and then took off for the golf course 🙂 Leaving me to do the setup on the tv and start to learn how to use it. He still hasn’t gotten all the peripherals hooked up (receiver is in shop, blu-ray not hooked up, dvd burner not hooked up, Apple TV not hooked up, Wii not hooked up), but he will hopefully get to them soon. It’s big and it has a great picture! Saturday night, we watched an old movie I had recorded on the DVR, Mr and Mrs. Smith. Good action one 🙂

Sunday was church (current series: Recreate, our pastor still on sabbatical till mid August) and then brunch at Corner Bakery. I had the trio with soup (asparagus soup, caesar salad and fruit) and Tim had the BBLT (double bacon on a BLT). We went to Lowe’s after that to buy a new weed eater. This seems to be the season of buying! First my stove, then his tv, now the needed weed eater. He was cutting the grass and weed eating a few days ago and said his weed eater was not working right. He’s fixed it before, replacing hoses and different stuff, but it was time for a new one. I think the old one was 8 or more years old, so time for a replacement. He played golf again Sunday afternoon. I made homemade pizza and a new recipe for hot cocoa ice cream for supper:

Sunday night, Gail flew in late from Texas and stayed with us. Luckily, Tim was up since he had to work Sunday night. I tried to stay up, was reading, and got so sleepy, I didn’t make it. Sorry I missed seeing Gail in and seeing her reaction to the new tv 🙂 Monday morning (today), we got up and got dressed and picked up Fred mid morning for two doctor appointment. He went to see his retina doctor in the AM and the pulmonology doctor at 1 PM. We picked up Chick Fil A and ate lunch at his assisted living place after we had finished. He has to go back to the retina doctor in another month, for another shot in his eye. :shiver: I can never watch!

Ok, I think that catches me up. Going to try to catch up on cleaning, laundry and stuff in the next couple of days, and hope I don’t have to take my dad to the doctor again. Four appointments in three days, I’m ready for a break!